US Republicans hit some bumps amid triumph (AFP)

House moves forward on ObamaCare repeal
In a procedural vote on Friday, the House of Representatives moved forward on plans to Repeal ObamaCare by instructing committees to begin marking up Legislation to replace the law passed in March of last year: The vote was 236-182 in favor of approving the rule, which is a House requirement setting the parameters of debate on underlying legislation. Usually, the rule is approved the same day as a final vote on legislation, but in this case, the vote on the bill won’t occur until next week...

Boehners Focus on Unemployment Helped GOP in 2010
Becoming speaker has long been Rep. John Boehner’s dream. But it wasn’t until mid-2009 when he and his team, sensing voter dissatisfaction with President Obama ’s policies and festering Unemployment, got serious with a new strategy. Boehner chose a path Republicans rarely stick to, but win when they do: focusing strictly on issues, not personalities. His “Winning the Issues” theme eventually morphed into the GOP question that won the 2010 election: “Where are ...

Post-Shooting, Dems Try to Clamp Down on Political Speech
Mon Jan. 10, 2011 11:45 AM PST It's becoming increasingly clear that Jared Lee Loughner appears to be a psychologically unhinged, nihilistic individual with no coherent ideology, whose political views are irrelevant if they can even be articulated. But that hasn't stopped lawmakers—mostly from the left—from denouncing a climate of Extremism and calling for a more civil, less partisan atmosphere. Democrats are now ramping up calls to place restrictions on inflammatory Speech. Rep. Bo...

Barack Obama, supply-sider?
Stop the bad stuff" is what House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told a bunch of us at breakfast a few weeks before the election. That's how he defined the GOP mission. Now he's speaker. And now there's an opportunity for both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to move in the direction of a supply-side Economic Growth model to reduce chronic Unemployment and really get The Economy moving again. You can't govern from the House alone. Boehner knows that. But he also knows that you can stop the redistribu...

Boehner: No Debt-Limit Hike Without Spending Cuts and Budget Reform
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) issued the following statement on the Debt Limit: I’ve been notified that the Obama Administration intends to formally request an increase in the Debt limit. The American People will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington. While America cannot default on its debt, we also cannot continue to borrow recklessly, dig ou...

He Was Angry About Healthcare
Ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey on Imus: “Tomorrow they were going to vote to Repeal this Health Care bill — and it’s not going to go anywhere in the Senate — it’s one of the reasons that this guy was angry and pretty obvious that he is, at least from me, where I sit that he’s mentally ill and deeply troubled.” Tomorrow is also 1/11/11 and there is just as much evidence that Loughner was angry about that, and perhaps even more reason to think it. How fortunate that B...

Zero Hour for Social Security
As I have previously warned--and I hope I'm wrong--President Obama seems on the verge of needlessly cutting America's most valued social program and the one that best differentiates Republicans from Democrats. This is part of a vain effort to appease Deficit hawks in his own party and on Wall Street, as well as Republicans who are utter hypocrites when it comes to deficits--increasing them as long as the purpose is Tax Cuts but then turning around and demanding program cuts in order to reduce ...

Signals of an Obama Comeback in Sight
Pollster John Zogby updates our weekly Obama Report Card with a grade on the president's performance. Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis, and interaction with major players to come up with a grade and some comments that capture how he sees the president's week ending. "The president is coming back from a good Vacation and a string of legislative victories. Lots of fanfare about the new Congress, new speaker, the Tea Party, Repeal of Health Care reform, and massive reductions in spendin...

A good time to turn down the temperature
At this point, there's no evidence that any statement from any politician sent Jared Loughner over the edge. But I don't think, as some are arguing, that we can just exhale and ignore the ugly and violent Rhetoric that's creeping into our politics. Many of us have known people who, after watching a loved one die of an awful disease, have begun taking better care of their own health. It's not that they were at risk of whatever killed their relative. But the awful experience focused attention on ...

The dawn of a new era-at least it looks that way
This week marks the beginning of what could be a new era in Tennessee politics, as Republicans take real and firm control of the House of Representatives and the State gets used to the words "Senator Campfield." Over the years, Tennesseans have grown to expect the unexpected in the opening week of a legislative session, it is how we ended up with Lieutenant Governor John Wilder in 1987, even though Riley Darnell was the official Majority nominee for that post. Two years ago, the successful plot ...

Mark C. Miller: 10 Best Topical Jokes of the Week
© 2010 Image created for Mark Miller by Nancy DeFrance https://defrancegraphics.com/ A rare "panda cow," which is a miniature cow with marking similar to a panda, was born this week on a farm in Colorado. Still not as weird as the "laughing hyena octopus." Captain Owen Honors, who commands the nuclear-powered Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise, was temporarily relieved of duty on Tuesday after lewd videos surfaced that he created on board the ship. Commented Honors, "I was just trying to entertai...

GOP Leaders Respond to Arizona Crime
Over the weekend many of the leaders in the Republican Party responded to this criminal action perpetrated against a fellow member of Congress on Saturday. It is important that their words be heard because of the din of the Old Media and the Democrats is so loud as to have drowned out the sorrow that the GOP leaders exhibited over this incident. “We are all still shaken by the shooting that took place in Tucson on Saturday, and we are thinking especially today about the six people whose li...

Simon Black's Take On This Weekend's Shooting, And What It May Mean For America's Future
truly an entertaining and informative read, and who has been anticipating the encroaching transition of America to a control state, shares his two cents on this weekend's tragic shooting in Florida. "With one of their own victimized, however, I'm concerned that politicians will close ranks, capitalize on the social mood to generate a renewed faith in government, and pass a host of reactionary policies... all after sanitizing their Twitter feeds for any reference to violence, of course. Perhaps ...

Arizona Shooting Creates Unifying Pause In Confrontational Political Climate
WASHINGTON — The shooting rampage in Arizona seems to have created a reset moment for confrontational politics, as lawmakers reflect on the repercussions of the overheated Rhetoric traded on the airwaves and on the Campaign Trail. Members of Congress from both parties called Sunday for civility over belligerence as the House temporarily shelved the contentious debate over repealing the Health Care law and lawmakers paused to contemplate the tragedy. Critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giff...

Why Can't Republicans Name One Thing to Cut in the Budget?
You're a newly elected Republican congressman. For the last six months, you've been railing against Trillions in federal spending. Once elected, you've promised to cut $100 billion from the Budget in the first Fiscal Year. Now it's Prime Time, the mic is in your face, the camera closes in, and asked for one program to cut, you slam your first and respond with patriotic passion ... I'm not imagining a hypothetical, here. Nor am I picking on some newly minted carpenter-turned-Tea-Party-congressman...

Zero Hour for Social Security
As I have previously warned--and I hope I'm wrong--President Obama seems on the verge of needlessly cutting America's most valued social program and the one that best differentiates Republicans from Democrats. This is part of a vain effort to appease Deficit hawks in his own party and on Wall Street, as well as Republicans who are utter hypocrites when it comes to deficits--increasing them as long as the purpose is Tax Cuts but then turning around and demanding program cuts in order to reduce ...

Tucson shooting alters congressional agenda
WASHINGTON - This weekend's shooting in Tucson that killed six and wounded 14, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, hasn't just shaken Washington emotionally -- it's also shaken up the congressional agenda. The new Republican leadership in the House had planned an ambitious agenda for the first days of the 112th Congress, following up its adoption of new Budget rules last week with a vote to Repeal the Health Care bill this week. But on Sunday, Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor sent o...

Democrat: Citing Constitution Will Cost Taxpayers $570K
Dems look for a way to save Taxpayers money This is what Democrats see as waste thehill Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown said a GOP requirement that lawmakers cite the Constitution in each bill they introduce will cost $570,000 in additional printing costs. The Florida Democrat, who is in her ninth term in Congress, said the extra costs are attributed to “supplies, labor and delivery ." Democrats have complained about the new House GOP rule, which requires all Legislation to include a cita...

The Impact of Obamacare: From the Frontlines of Our Health Care Crisis
The fight against ObamaCare has begun on a new front as the House of Representatives prepares to consider H.R. 2, a measure to Repeal the Health Care overhaul in its entirety. New Members of Congress campaigned on a promise to fight the unpopular new law, and this is the first step to making good on that promise. Meanwhile, proponents of ObamaCare continue to claim that Repeal would hurt Americans and increase the federal Deficit. In fact, the reverse is true. The negative impact of the health...

Rattled lawmakers return to Washington
Rattled lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill on Monday wondering what, if anything, they should do in the wake of the weekend Assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). So far, there’s no clear agenda coming from congressional leaders on how to handle the aftermath, and the House isn’t even in session. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset That’s not stopping lawmakers from floating their own proposals. Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) would put restrictions on imag...

Dem leader: Alleged shooter sought 'Second Amendment remedy'
Rep. James Clyburn said it is impossible not to connect fiery campaign Rhetoric to the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).  The number three-ranking House Democrat invoked the Rhetoric of a Tea Party Senate Candidate in describing the actions of the man accused of shooting Giffords (D-Ariz.).  "He saw a Second Amendment remedy and that's what occurred here and there is no way not to make that connection," Clyburn said during an interview with the Charleston Post and Courier. 

Brian Kalk To Announce US Senate Intentions Next Week
I have it on excellent authority from an in-the-know source that Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk will be announcing his intentions with regard to the 2012 Senate race next week. I’m told that Kalk had actually been planning on announcing this week but postponed plans due to the tragedy in Tucson. Conrad has been mentioned numerous times as one of the most vulnerable Congressional Democrats in the 2012 cycle, and indeed the the campaign advertising war in the race has already begun w...

Can we now talk about Mental Health?
(This issue is crucial, yet receives almost no discussion in our country. That's a tragedy. Thanks to Gretchen for bringing it to our attention! - promoted by lowkell) After the horrible shooting on Saturday, the one thing I think most of us, liberal and conservative, agree on is that the person who did the shooting had Mental Health issues. Many people reported how "disturbing" they found him to be. One community college told him he could not return without a doctor saying he was no longer a da...

Top 10 enemies the pro-abortion Left fears
I’m not sure “fears” is the right word. Maybe “hates”? And I’m not sure how NRB devised the list, which appears to be a group effort. Nevertheless, it’s interesting. The only one I would question is Sekulow. He’s a good lawyer, but there are many good lawyers who exclusively focus on the Life issue, which he does not… 10. Jill Stanek , RN and blogger 7.  John Boehner , Speaker of the House (pictured above with Dr. Yoest, #6 on list) 6. D...

Jared Loughner: The Making of a Political Assassin and an American Terrorist
When the sound of gunfire had finally stopped, 18 people were shot. Of the 18 wounded, six of them were dead or were dying, including John M. Roll, the chief U.S. District Judge in Arizona, and Gabe Zimmerman, Giffords's local director of community outreach. Also killed was Christina Taylor Green, age 9, who ironically was born on Sept. 11, 2001, and had gone to the event with a neighbor. Two other Giffords Staffers, district director Ron Barber and community outreach aide Pam Simon were among t...